A BRAVE six-year-old who has survived cancer led thousands of women as they took part in Race for Life at Pennington Flash.

Little Georgia Kelly was guest of honour at the Leigh event and sounded the air horn to start Sunday's race. She set off a formidable army of about 1,300 women for the 5k route to raise money for Cancer Research UK’s pioneering work.

Georgia took part in the event with her mum Karen and more than 36 other friends and family members and among the spectators none cheered her on more than her nan, Ann Wood, from Atherton. Ann, aged 68, suffers from lupus – so was unable to take part in the event on what would have been her husband’s 65th birthday.

Sam Wood, Georgia’s grand-dad, died from oesophageal cancer just months prior to his grand-daughter being diagnosed.

Georgia, from Daisy Hill, was diagnosed with cancer in November 2011. She underwent surgery to remove a tumour and part of her skull followed by a further operation to insert a plate in her skull. Then a second tumour was discovered in her abdomen, and tests revealed Georgia had neuroblastoma.

Her parents, Karen and Phil Kelly, had already suffered heartache after losing their first child Jamie at the age of just three weeks after he was born prematurely.

Georgia’s chemotherapy finished in March 2012. Scans showed she was clear of cancer, but her bone marrow results were not completely clear, so she had two extra cycles of another three chemotherapy drugs.

In July of last year, Georgia had a stem cell harvest, followed by surgery to remove the calcified tumour in her abdomen, thought to be the primary source of the cancer.

Since then, she has also had stem cell transplant and 14 doses of radiotherapy. However, the 20 weeks of immunotherapy treatment Georgia has recently received have proved the hardest to cope with. Georgia was in such severe pain she was prescribed extremely strong painkillers. She was often only feeling back to her normal self before the next set of treatment commenced. But a recent scan has shown Georgia is cancer free.

Mrs Kelly, aged 36, said: “Georgia was so excited about being special guest at Race for Life. “We are thrilled that so many people have supported our team. “Without the money for research raised by Race for Life events then Georgia might not have received such excellent treatment and be here with us now.”

“Team Georgia” has already raised more than £2,000 for Cancer Research UK. Organisers hope the event at Leigh will raise £80,000 for Cancer Research UK.

Places are still available at Race for Life Bolton on Sunday July 7 and at Haydock on Sunday July 14.

Staff and pupils from Leigh CE Junior School took part in the Pennington Flash event with teacher Alison Ainsworth finishing in 26 minutes and in the top 20 overall. The school raised £300-plus for Cancer research UK last Friday when children and staff all wore pink for the day.